Every month, I post a report of our expenses to show that it is possible to live a comfortable, exciting, and adventurous life without breaking the bank. The less money you spend, the less you need to make. 🙂
This report includes ALL of our expenses, in US$, for two adults and one 60-pound dog (we adopted Maya on June 4th, 2019). Under groceries we incorporate food, produce, and non-alcoholic drinks predominantly bought in supermarkets. Toiletries belong in that category as well. Dining out means eating at a restaurant/event or purchasing take-out food. The health category covers non-prescription medicines and vitamins/supplements; medical contains prescription drugs and doctor’s visits. Because of our income level, Mark and I are eligible for free health care within the state of Massachusetts. For check-ups, we both return to the East Coast.
Mark, Maya, and I lived in a guest room in Massachusetts for the first half of September and returned to the road, in a new-to-us camper after that. The second part of the month was spent driving through and/or visiting the states of New York, Ohio, and Illinois, arriving in Chicago by the end of the month.
Free overnight parking in Chicago, at Lincoln Park
Those first two weeks of September were quite hectic, as we prepared for our trip, installed more parts to make our mobile lives easier or more comfortable, and I aimed to get to a stopping point with my book promo. Mark added an inverter and charger to our home on wheels and rewired parts of it to suit our homebuilt Lithium battery.
(As always, click on or hover over photos to read the captions.)
The most tricky – and annoying – task was figuring out a way to bring our e-bikes with us, now that an extension swing-out hitch and our original bike rack were not an option anymore. We ordered durable hooks, a backing plate, hardware, and straps to come up with a decent solution. This configuration on our ladder had to be changed – in Massachusetts and on the road – multiple times to avoid chafing and reduce damage on our bikes. It’s been an ordeal!
We covered about 1,000 miles last month, which is reflected in the high fuel cost, but is nothing compared to this month. Our fuel economy is terrible! Even worse than we expected. This is hard to swallow for us “thrifty travelers” as we are still getting used to our new camper set-up and weigh the pros and cons compared to a campervan. That topic will be for a future post!
Now that we live in our truck camper, we needed to change its insurance policy to reflect its higher value. We also bought more household items, like an outdoor mat, shower curtain, towel bars… Our first propane refill was expensive. Hopefully this is related to us messing about with the refrigerator setting. This fridge, unfortunately, runs on propane.
Remember that pricey Mexican lunch last month? The friends we treated back then, covered our part of a take-out dinner before we left on our trip. Hence, no dining out category for September. Since we mainly drink in company these days, the alcohol cost is for beer, wine, and sangria that we brought to “parties.”
We decided to spend money on entertainment this time around, by visiting two of New York’s most iconic state parks, sporting loads of waterfalls and hiking trails: Watkins Glen SP and Letchworth SP. You can read more about those sites here.
And, some attractions are free, like Indiana Dunes National Park, where we hiked, biked, and even spent the night! 🙂
In true Liesbet and Mark fashion, we once again boondock every night. This means camping without hook-ups or – usually – facilities. It’s also called “dry camping” or “wild camping” and is often (in our case, always) free. We use the no-cost app iOverlander (for campers by campers) to find suitable locations to spend the night. We also contribute to this service by adding new places, reviews, photos, experiences, and updates.
This expense report was a tricky one to create, because my accounting is different than Mark’s, who actually keeps track of everything in Quicken. His total expense for September 2021 resulted in a negative number, because we – finally – sold many valuable items that came with the truck and camper that we didn’t want. The idea being that this amount went towards our expenses for the truck and camper. Based on that math, the first category in my list underneath boiled down to only $20. Yes, we sold $990 worth of stuff. Most of it last minute!
The second “discrepancy” (a credit of $857) came from our Chase credit card points that had a value of 1.5x the amount if we used them before September ended. We still have another $300 (at 1x the amount) left for this month. If anybody is interested in checking out an incredible credit card offer – 100,000 free points (a value of $1,000 at 1x the points) – this is my Chase referral code: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/6c/PR3FJUQ8CP.
Telling the readers of this blog that we spent -200 dollars wouldn’t make any sense, so I decided to itemize our expenses like I usually do and the credits and returns on our money will be incorporated in our yearly report. Now, let’s hope that we can finally bring our costs down to the $1,300 monthly average soon!
Find all our expense reports here. To learn what other full-time nomads spend each month, check out the blogs of our vanlife friends Duwan and Greg at Make Like An Ape Man.
